December 10th, 2009
While eating breakfast this morning, I happened across this contest for the Worst Move-Out photos, held by PropertyManager.com. As interestingly disturbing as these photos are, they do provide a valuable lesson. A commenter brought up a good point for property managers to remember to inspect your rentals on a regular basis.
As a property manager, it is a good idea schedule inspections for the property throughout the term of the lease. Consider setting up a quarterly or even mid-lease term to schedule a time with your tenants to stop by. In addition, if you really want to be diligent, let the tenants know when they sign the lease that you’ll be stopping by every three months, with a 24-hour notice of course, to check on the place. Not only is this respectful to your renters privacy, but it also is a reminder to them to maintain the property.
Take it from the property who took this photo, I doubt that the damage deposit will cover this… The following photo is reason #1 for regular rental property inspections, be sure to check out the other 16 at: ‘Cover Your Eyes! A Selection of Entries from Our “Worst Move-Out Photo” Contest’ from PropertyManager.com.
WARNING!!! DO NOT BE EATING WHEN YOU VIEW THESE PHOTOS!
This is only 1 of 10 from the same apartment!!!
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December 1st, 2009
In order to assist the Tom Martin and the Student Government at Saint Cloud State University in their venture to bring an Off-Campus Student Housing web service to SCSU students, we have developed a temporary solution for them in the interim.
Check it out at: http://www.rentupdate.com/university/st-cloud-state
SCSU Off-Campus Housing List on RentUpdate.com
This link will take visitors to a special section of RentUpdate.com, designed to be a resource connecting students with property managers around the SCSU campus. It will allow property managers to actively post available listings and for students to use dynamic search filters to find an apartment.
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Tags: Off-Campus Student Housing
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November 21st, 2009
Last week while browsing through industry news in student housing, I heard that the Student Government Association (SGA) at Saint Cloud State University was planning to begin development on an Off-Campus Housing website for students. The University Chronicle article (SGA Designs New Website), announced that the Student Government would be rallying students, school and community to create a sorely needed resource for SCSU students. The website will be designed to centralize local housing information and make it more accessible to the approximately 15,000 students that live off-campus.
I reached out to the Chair of Campus Affairs Tom Martin, who is spearheading the project for the SGA, to see if Rent Update might be of service in any way. After a quick trip to St Cloud, I had the opportunity to sit down for a short meeting with Tom. We discussed his plans for the project and the challenges that they faced in launching a Rental Listing Service. Challenges that we have faced as well, while building RentUpdate.com.
Our meeting was productive for both sides as I learned a great deal from Tom’s experiences, and hope I could provide a sliver of wisdom and insight from my own. I offered Tom and the SGA of St Cloud State University, Rent Update’s assistance in anyway to help them overcome the challenges they face.
We wish them the best, and hope to be of service.
Tags: Off-Campus Student Housing
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November 10th, 2009
Recently we completed a study on the availability of online off-campus housing information provided by the colleges and universities that make up the Minnesota Post-Secondary school system. As we all know, off-campus housing is a vital component to a college education, not only for students who do not wish to live on campus, but for smaller schools that do not have on-campus housing options available.
After a few hours of online homework scouring the websites of the 100 Colleges, Universities and private schools in Minnesota…here’s what we found:
With almost endless housing information scattered across the web, such a small percentage of dynamic, search-able services provided by Colleges and Universities would be seem understandable. However, after reflecting back on my own personal experience in college, I recall having no clue where to start looking for off-campus housing. For that matter, up until my sophomore year, I hadn’t even thought about housing, let alone search for it. It was always just there.
So when it came time to take my college experience off campus, my fellow students and I went to first place we thought of for help, our school. Fortunately for me, I happened to attend one of the two schools in Minnesota (University of MN – Duluth), that actually maintained a list that I could search (Go UMD!).
So if most of us begin our apartment search when moving from on-campus resident life to off-campus, wouldn’t it seem natural that more schools would provide such resources and guidance for their students?
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October 19th, 2009
After years of frustration tracking down apartments, the founders here at RentUpdate.com have built a Rental Housing Platform that doesn’t take hiring a detective to find quality rentals.
From the beginning, it only seemed sensible to us that a rental listing platform, which can successfully draw together the millions looking to rent each year with those looking fill rentals, should be open and unrestricted by fees. With that, the founders have dared to ask the question, “Why charge for the very information that would make a truly valuable tool?” The obvious answer to the question was clear…
…and RentUpdate.com was born.
RentUpdate is founded on the idea that the world’s rental information, could be pulled into one place and made easily accessible to those that wish to publish and find it. In order to achieve this mighty feat, RentUpdate has ventured down a path where no other venture has been successful. RentUpdate.com will offer a dynamic and premium Rental Listing Platform that is completely FREE to our users, both renters and property managers.
We’ve created this blog to continue to share the RentUpdate story in our humble goal to create value for all members of the rental community. Comments, feedback and ideas are openly invited as we hope that RentUpdate.com will be as much yours as it is ours.
Thank you,
The RentUpdate Team
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